I didn’t mention it, but we started a week of NO TV on Sunday and here we are on day 5 of our NO TV week, and it’s gone amazingly well. I believe that there was a big official thing last week or maybe even the week before, but we’re a bit behind the times, and I don’t think that it matters that I’m a week or so off.
I’m surprised at how often the kids turn to the TV just as a default….it’s unreal. At first, I’d go in and have to remind them it seemed like every few seconds.  We’d just get it turned off and then another child would come it and turn it on again…. It was almost robotic……come home from schoool and turn the TV on….get a snack and turn the TV on…..got to the washroom and turn the TV on…..come in from playing outside and turn the TV on…you get the picture.
I’m not sure what to do going forward. The kids have always had a pretty good imagination, and so it’s not like they were freaking out and had no idea what to do with themselves, but more that right now, they are having to come up with ideas and plans of “stuff” to do to entertain themselves.  I think that it’s the planning – actually thinking about having to do something that was just getting them…..
I am not sure if I should continue on with limited TV or even with NO TV for another week….but maybe let them watch a DVD once or twice…I don’t know…..I like the idea of it not being “the thing” they turn to because they don’t know what to do with themselves. Think child…..THINK! Think of somthing fun to do, something creative, something that requires that you expend energy….
I think the thing that has been most surprising to me has been ME. I figured that I’d probably watch TV in the evenings during our NO TV week because that’s what I do.
‘Siah nurses to sleep at 8pm and I usually sit down and watch something and then once he’s alseep and in his bed, I’ll knit or crochet or do some digital scrapbooking or something like that with the TV on in the background. It’s just down time for me, and I don’t watch daytime television so that’s not an issue.
Last night was the first time that I sat down and watched something, and it was the last half of a movie, on my computer, in bed….and then I went to sleep. I’ve been alone in the evenings this week and have managed to keep myself fairly busy, but last night I was just tired.
Jon’s been working looooong hours 9-5 during the daytime and then from 8-11 or 12 in the evening….He’s just trying to get caught up. It seems like a bunch of work has come in all at once, and he was feeling a bit overwhelmed, and so we decided to just do what we could to plow through a pile of it, BUT….that makes for very, VERY long days….hopefully by the end of this week, he’ll be caught up enough that we can go back to normal hours….or even just one or two night a week where he works in the evening.
So, this week has been a success (pretty much) and I can see us doing regular NO TV Weeks, or maybe even just picking set times for the kids to watch a show or movie….it’s actually been more peaceful in the house with the TV off…..go figure.
Do you remember no TV times growing up?
They never seemed to last that long.
Lots of seeking into the basement with the TV turned WAY down.
Good times.
Hi! Wow…how strange is this…I’ve had a ‘no TV’ week myself..only I called it ‘fasting TV’. It’s been awesome. I’ve allowed myself to watch the odd news program, but that’s it. Used the extra time not watching TV to read, soak..pray. Anyways..when we did the TV thing with our kids – after I took them off the NO TV time, what I did was give each of them a stack of poker chips -“A” got red, “J” got blue – you get the idea. Each chip reperesented a 1/2 hr. of TVtime. I figured out how much TV they should be allowed to watch for a WEEK…and then said, they could now monitor themselves. If they wanted to use up a chip to watch a TV program – they were to put it in a jar on top of the TV. Once all their chips were gone, they had to wait til Monday to get more. They could use up all there chips on one Day ( saturday marathon of TV watching), or go thru the TV guide and plan the shows they wanted to watch during the week. It taught them to really THINK about what they wanted to use their time on! ( Oh and if they watched a program together -yes, that was TWO chips – one each!) Anyways..just an idea, but it sure worked for our household!